


Lost and Found

by mysticmajestic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-15 00:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15400593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticmajestic/pseuds/mysticmajestic
Summary: Shiro loses his daughter in the mall. Lance finds her.





	Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

> You know when you just want to write something really short and cute? Yeah.

There were days when parenting came as easily as breathing to Shiro…and there were days when it didn’t.

Today was placed firmly in the latter category. He had taken his six-year-old daughter out to the local mall for what he had hoped to be a relaxing day shopping, but Ellie had been in a mood ever since she woke up. Her constant yelling was grating on his nerves, her refusal to listen to him when he told her “No, you can’t have that” or “hold my hand!” and he wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

The Pillowpet he had bought her to brighten her mood had been quickly forgotten. The judgmental stares he got from other people in Target lingered, quickening his heartbeat, feeding adrenaline into his bloodstream. Sweat beaded his forehead. What was he supposed to do for anxiety again? Breathe? Ha! Fat chance of that.

They were passing a sports store when everything came to a head.

“Daddy, I want a pogo stick!”

“Ellie, no, you’re not getting a pogo stick,” Shiro sighed. He heard her stop and stamp her foot and wished that she was still at an age where he could stick her in the trolley without her climbing out of it. He turned to face her. The little pout on her face would usually have put a smile on his face, but now it only served to infuriate him more. “Ellie, you’re being very bad today, you know that? That’s enough.”

Being a single-parent was tough. On days like these when Ellie let her temper run unchecked, he had no one to help him. He had no one to just pick up Ellie and appease her, giving him an exit to go deal with his anxiety before it consumed him. Already, he could feel his hands shaking. People were staring at them, goddamn it, they were judging him. He could feel everyone staring at him.

“Well?” they all seemed to ask. “How are you going to fix this? How are you going to stop yourself from being a terrible father? Your child is upset with you, and you can’t handle it. What kind of parent do you call yourself? Huh?! Tell me!”

When he reached for Ellie, she made an indignant noise and step away.

“Eloise Shirogane, that’s enough!” he snapped. “Enough with the attitude or I’m taking your Pillowpet back to the store this instant!”

Tears beaded her little eyes. “No!”

“Eloise—”

“ _I hate you!_ ” she screamed, and before he could think to stop her, she turned around and ran away. When he yanked the trolley around, heart in his throat, she had disappeared into the crowd. He had lost her.

  


* * *

  


Lance hated running out of face cream, particularly because he liked expensive brands. Yes, yes, if he didn’t use them every night he wouldn’t run out so fast, but he  _needed_  them. That was why he was back in his favourite store in the mall, waving hello to Sarah at the customer service desk who now no longer needed to ask for his number to complete his order because she knew it by heart.

It was just another Tuesday for him until he rounded into the aisle his facial cream was in and found a little girl sitting on the floor sobbing her eyes out. As someone who was an uncle to a bunch of little kids, this was just not something he could ignore.

“Hey,” he said, kneeling. “Little girl are you okay?”

“I-I want my D-Daddy!” she cried.

“Okay, okay…Where is your daddy?” Lance hadn’t seen any men in the store when he walked in. “I don’t see him. Does he know where you are?”

“I-I runned away.”

Oh, boy. “How about you show me where you last left him. You remember that right?”

The little girl lifted her head from her hands, ruddy-cheeked and covered in drying tears and snot. She hesitantly nodded.

“Then let me walk you there.” He held out his hand.

“Daddy said I’m not s’posed to go with people I don’t know. They snatch little kids like me.”

“Smart man. My name is Lance, what about yours?”

“Ellie.”

Lance grinned. “Pretty name for a pretty young lady. I’m not going to snatch you, I just want to take you to your dad. Cross my heart and hope to die.” He drew an ‘x’ over his heart with his finger, then held out his hand again. “Let’s go before he gets too far.”

Instead of taking his hand, she held her arms up. Lance picked her up, balancing her on his hip.

“Alright, let’s go!”

  


* * *

  


When Ellie’s father wasn’t at the last place she’d left him, nor in the general vicinity, Lance knew there was no other choice but for him to go to security and ask them to put out an announcement or something. The mall was huge and due to close within the next two hours. If Ellie’s father loved her as much as she clearly loved him, he’d be going insane right now, and there was no time to waste.

Luckily, the mall’s security was more than happy to help them.

“Will the father of Eloise Shirogane please report to the information desk near Sephora on level 2?” A pause. “Will the father of Eloise Shirogane please report to the information desk near Sephora on level 2?” The woman put down the device in her hand, offering Lance and Eloise a warm smile. “If he’s not here within the next five minutes, we’ll put out the message again. Sometimes it can take a while to make it from one side of the mall to the other.”

“Thank you so much for this,” said Lance.

“Not a problem.”

As they waited, Lance asked Ellie about her father, the only topic he could think of at that moment.

“He’s the bestest Daddy in the whole world!” she said immediately. “And his hair’s all white even though grandpa and grandma has black hair. And a scar. He has a scar right here.” She ran her finger over the bridge of her nose. She lowered her voice and said, “He also lets me have ice cream for breakfast sometimes, but you can’t tell grandma okay? It’s a secret.”

_This kid is too adorable!_  “I won’t tell anyone. Promise.”

“Also, he has—”

“Eloise!” They both jumped at the booming voice, turning around. All white hair, Asian just like Ellie, and a nose scar? Yep, the person who shoved his trolley against the wall and was running desperately toward them had to be her father. Lance quickly held her out. “Where did you go? You scared me so much!”

Stumbling to a stop, Eloise’s father snatched her up in a tight hug, kissing her forehead and cheeks. He was crying loudly, rocking back and forth. The loving scene almost brought Lance to tears, even as a smile curled his lips.

“Don’t you ever run away from me like that again,” said Ellie’s father.

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” Ellie sobbed. “I’m sorry.”

“Shh…it’s alright now. It’s alright. You’re safe. Just don’t do that again.”

“Mr. Lance finded me, and helped me find you,” said Ellie.

At that, her father looked up. Red-faced and teary-eyed, he shifted Ellie to his hip and stuck his prosthetic hand out. “Thank you so much for finding her. How can I ever repay you?”

“It was nothing,” said Lance, shaking his hand. “I’m glad to have helped.”

“Really, there must be something…”

Well if this stud was so desperate to repay him… “Hmm. How about a name and a trip to the coffee shop on level one?”

“Takashi Shirogane, but everyone calls me Shiro.” Wiping his eyes roughly with his spare hand, Shiro let out a wet little chuckle. “And right now a coffee sounds nice. Lance, right?”

Lance grinned. “Right.”

By the time they left the coffee shop on level one, escorted out of the building by mall security because it was past closing, Lance realised he had forgotten to buy his face cream. But with Shiro’s number in his contact list, a napkin from Ellie with a drawing of her puppy on it, there was no way he dared complain. He had just scored a second date with the most beautiful man he’d ever met, after all!

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment if you liked it!


End file.
